We tend to be familiar with the deep, philosophical question: Who am I? But when we ask Who am I not? it puts us on an edge. It brings up things that are hidden and not known. And stuff we might want to be. Stuff we find difficult to deal with. Try and see what you feel inside when you think about what am I not?

For me, it is uncomfortable. It doesn’t have a “bad” or “negative” connotation. Rather a place of growth and development and change. To increase our flexibility, capacity and perspective.

But the interesting thing is that it’s not the same as what are my weaknesses. This puts me on the defensive and calling me wrong.

Who am I not – softens the look on yourself during change. Opens the door for compassion and at the same time challenge. New perspectives about new ways to stretch when change happens – as is our normal life flow….

Ask yourself: Who am I not? Who are we not?

If you’d like to expand your possibilities, watch for the nonverbal signals of what’s not there. It will expand your awareness and capacity. It’s the nonverbal stuff that gives us cues into what’s not? and what’s wanting to happen?

For the last 3 years I’ve been working to add more ease and flow in my life and work. Coming from over 25 years in the hi-tech environment, I was always pushing, rushing and on the go… When I took a step back, I understood that there were parts of myself that I’m missing and not using… Not being fully in the momment and enjoying the small stuff…

My goal: How to mix that positive, active, directive energy with a softer, flowing, heart-based flow?

Mindset change: Going from Why? to Why Not?

Why? is great for understanding the problem? Going to solution?

Being in the hi-tech environment in new program development, system engineering and software development, this mindset served me well!

But in my business, most of my time was marketing. The old mindset wasn’t working….

I love challenges. Thinking. Doing. Achieving. Get results. I noticed that if it wasn’t hard, it wasn’t worth doing…

So building my own business was a transition: From hard challenges to it’s OK if it’s easy!

In my business, managing energy and business focus, i learned to love the dance, the lowest hanging fruits.

Ask Why NOT? The challenge in the flow doesn’t have to be hard!

With the new mindset comes new behaviors… If I find myself working hard, grinding, in frustration, I take a step out. Ask myself, what’s the easy way? Open up with positive energy by asking, Why Not?!

For corporate projects and programs, it’s important to reveal the team’s existing way of work alongside what’s making them less productive. It’s easy to see the potential in 1000’s of teams by Team Coaching International benchmarking:

Benchmarking reveals: High performing, top teams outperform average teams by 42%

Productivity measures by 39%

Positivity measures by 46%

Business flourishes in high performing teams. The cost of poor performance is staggering in corporate projects. In the growth mindset, teams evolve behaviors and actions that open possibilities for effectiveness. Teams dissolve factors that close them in. Organizational culture is being fine-tuned within the team.

What’s measured gets done! In my experience, measuring success is the core challenge for project success: How do you connect soft skills and knowledge goals to business measures? How does your project boost the business and people bottom-line?If you provide simple team measures, the environment and people are primed for flexibility, knowledge sharing, innovation, creativity and respect. You’ll institute a framework for successful, sustainable results! The team development methodology contains 4 stages:

1) First, measure where the team is. In less than 20 minutes, you get a team snapshot. You meet the team and experts where they are. Cuts through the mess… What’s really happening and important for success? For possibly the first time, knowledge workers think of the team as an organic entity.

2) Second, create a roadmap – including how we want to be & where we want to go…. The 14 team success factors help to determine strengths & areas of growth. Buy-in for project goals to internal needs. What’s missing? What’s not being said? What wants to happen? It’s a BIG step to align expectations.

3) Third, work as a team, to get there…. With awareness, teams grow and develop as a system – a natural process for realizing, practicing and integrating new methods. With focus, teams begin to evolve and produce more sustainable results. Generate new agreements & rules of engagement. Produce the results!

4) Fourth, see improvements with AFTER measures! The project team gets quick feedback on changes.Concrete measures that show improvement as a team. In my experience, when team growth is paired with challenging business goals, business thrives.

Think for a moment about your company project… What’s missing? What burdens or limits? Are you focused on people, but wanting faster, more measurable results? To motivate today’s knowledge workers for successful projects, a shift in focus is necessary – from individuals to growing teams.

Business success is based on peak performance of knowledge workers and their team. According to Vineet Nayar’s Harvard Business Review Blog, 21 June 2012, the key is creating high performing teams with 3 factors:

Big Challenge – compels the team forward to accomplish the challenge with productivity, shared vision and responsibility!

A Space to Excel – teams in a supportive space where it’s OK to make a mistake – a space to experiment, innovate and create! It’s not enough to just do it….

Engaged People – teams connect with great energy to reach a solution to their challenge!

When engaged people are connected, the formula is simpler: 2 dimensions measure business success, according to research by Team Coaching International:

Productivity – At its core, teams exist to produce results! Motivated by the big challenge.

Positivity – Team members must also feel connected! Motivated by a positive space to excel.

From your projects, you know: motivating knowledge workers deals with both dimensions – removing obstacles for better productivity and enhancing the environment for a more collaborative, positive space. Therefore, team performance measures are an effective tool for motivating knowledge workers. You shift from a static, rigid business-as-usual mindset into a growth mindset – from thinking “knowledge is power” to “knowledge management is empowering”.

For strategic HR projects, you focus on “talent working together”. You’ve already recruited the best. You train your leadership. Compensate and review fairly. But what can be done about the “glue” of employee engagement, innovation and collaboration? How can you foster high-performing, sustainable teams – your #1 organization asset ….

For KM projects, you focus on “talent’s organizational knowledge”. You capture, share, use, reuse and create knowledge. Make knowledge accessible, usable with tools and processes. Focus upon experts. How can you focus on the right issues that will make an impact? How can you get the buy-in? What’s the “glue” behind the KM tools, skills and processes? It’s NOT just the individual. It’s the relationships and operational units that make the difference. The KM context is the team – your #1 organization asset ….

About Blog

USOLVE are professional business & team specialists advancing managers & their teams in global business. Empowering women. The blog provides a fresh systems engineering approach for team, business and personal development. It presents views, tips and hands-on experience. Based on our success record as seasoned managers & engineers in global business, our passion for supporting women & our international coaching practice based in Israel.